Russia dismisses property chief for connection with Yukos case

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 05, 2004

Russia dismisses property chief for connection with Yukos case

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Russia sacked Thursday Federal Property Fund chief Vladimir Malin, who is charged with abuse of power in connection with an allegedly fraudulent sale of state-owned shares that triggered an investigation into the oil giant Yukos.

Malin was dismissed by acting Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko"under an article of the Labor Code," and his deputy Kirill Tomashchyuk has been appointed acting head of the fund that is the nominal owner of all of Russia's state assets, Itar-Tass newsagency reported.

The Prosecutor General's Office has charged Malin with powerabuse in connection with a sale of 20 percent of the stocks in the State-owned fertilizer giant Apatit in the 1994 privatization deal.The privatization of Apatit has been the focus of the caseagainst oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his longtime businesspartner Platon Lebedev, who are in detention pending trial on fraud and tax evasion charges.

Prosecutors said the shares were sold at a price far less than their potential worth and the company that purchased them failedto invest 283 million US dollars in Apatit as promised.The investment was guaranteed by Bank Menatep, which was then controlled by Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, but the investments nevermaterialized, prosecutors said.

Many leaders and key shareholders of Yukos, which is undergoing a massive judicial investigation, are either detained for alleged financial offenses or living in exile in foreign countries, and Malin is the first senior Russian officials that was toppled inconnection with the case.

Critics claimed that the legal probe into Yukos was a Kremlin-backed move to revenge Khodorkovsky that sponsored the political opponents of President Vladimir Putin.

The incumbent leader, who is set to win his re-election in the March 14 presidential poll, has firmly denied the allegation and described it as part of the anti-corruption campaign.

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